Vintages

My Wines

My Cellar

Tired of boring old wines from Australia? No? Then you can probably thank Penfolds Wines. Penfolds, founded in 1844 by Mary and Dr. Penfold (Mary gets top billing since she took care of most of the early management and winemaking responsibilities), has completely revolutionized not only its own product lines throughout the years, but also many wines in Australia as a whole. The wine ... Read more

Tired of boring old wines from Australia? No? Then you can probably thank Penfolds Wines. Penfolds, founded in 1844 by Mary and Dr. Penfold (Mary gets top billing since she took care of most of the early management and winemaking responsibilities), has completely revolutionized not only its own product lines throughout the years, but also many wines in Australia as a whole. The wine produced by Penfolds was originally prescribed as tonic wines for anaemic patients, with the wine made from Grenache. By 1870, with 60 acres under vine, they were producing many more wines. In the 1920s and 1930s, Penfolds was known for its fortified wine, like many other wineries in the area.
1943 marked the start of a massive expansion for Penfolds Winery, with first the acquisition of Auldana Vineyard and its winery, and then the purchase of Kalimna Vineyard in 1945. By the end of the decade, they owned vineyards in McLaren Vale, Griffith, the Hunter Valley, and Minchinbury. Around the same time, winemaker Max Schubert returned from oversees with a completely new vision for the future of the winery. In the 50s, he started experimenting with the red wine he called Grange, which is a mix of primarily Shiraz and a little Cabernet Sauvignon, and by the 1960s the wine had spread across the Australian wine industry.
Not wanting to stop with merely one of the most successful wine projects in the history of Australia, Penfolds Wines started the “White Grange” project in the 1990s, leading to the immensely popular and publicized release of the Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay. Peter Gago became their Chief Winemaker in 2002, and he, along with three winemakers in charge of red wine and one in charge of white, continue the tradition of experimentation and evolution.
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